MAGIC MOMENTS FROM THE WIZARD
Woakes is busy casting his spell and peaking at right time...like England
ENGLAND’S bowling headlines in this World Cup have been hogged by a handful of players.
There’s been the pace and incision of Jofra Archer and Mark Wood, the unexpected economy of Ben Stokes and, now that he’s back in the side, the middle-overs expertise of Liam Plunkett.
But what of the man who got England’s crucial defences of big totals against India and New Zealand off to the perfect start?
Not for the first time in his career, Chris Woakes has operated under the radar.
Part of Woakes’s spiel is that there has always been a team-mate or two who opposition batsmen might regard with more suspicion. Yet they underestimate Woakes at their peril. Frankly, we all do.
Between the last World Cup and this, only New Zealand’s Trent Boult claimed more wickets in the first 10 overs of one-day internationals than Woakes’s 44.
And of the three six-wicket hauls in England’s ODI history, Woakes is the proud possessor of two. These things do not happen by accident.
Rather like the England team as a whole, Woakes has grown into this tournament — and peaked at the right time.
He was quiet early on, bowling only five overs in the victory against South Africa, then conceding more than eight an over against both Pakistan and Bangladesh.
At that point, his inconsistency mirrored England’s.
But since then he has made interventions in almost every game he has played, starting with the thrashing of West Indies in Southampton, where he knocked over Evin Lewis in his second over, then scored a handy 40 from No 3 after England rejigged their order following the hamstring injury to Jason Roy.
It has been during England’s final three group matches, however, that Woakes has shown his unobtrusive class.
Those games — against Australia, India and New Zealand, the three other semi-finalists — always loomed ominously over England’s schedule, a potential stumbling block should earlier results not go their way. Which is exactly how things turned out.
On a cloudy morning at Lord’s against Australia, Woakes alone bowled a full length with the new ball, a necessity in the conditions that proved beyond Archer and Wood.
He passed the outside edge of David Warner’s bat too many times to mention, and on another day might have persuaded umpire Chris Gaffaney that Aaron Finch should have been given out leg-before on 18.
Technology showed the appeal was an umpire’s call because of height. In other words, Finch would have been out if Gaffaney had upheld the appeal in the first place. Instead, he went on to make a century, before Australia’s left-armers, Jason Behrendorff and Mitchell Starc, bowled England out of the game.
Faced with a pair of must-win games, Woakes rose to the challenge. Against
India’s mighty batting line-up, he began, remarkably, with three maidens, and caught KL Rahul for nought off his own bowling.
By the end of the powerplay, India — needing 338 — were 27 for one. It was a situation not even Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli could remedy.
Then, against New Zealand at Chester-le- Street on Wednesday, Woakes removed another opener for a duck, trapping the left-handed Henry Nicholls with one that nipped back.
Replays showed the ball was going over the stumps, and in that respect, too, Woakes has been a barometer for the team’s fortunes — the luck has started to go with England.
In a competition where bungled catches have featured prominently — Sharma alone has scored 369 runs after being dropped — Woakes has enjoyed a good run.
During the defeat by Pakistan, England’s tension was reflected in the shushing gesture he made to Pakistani fans after a diving catch on the boundary to remove Imamul-Haq — one of four he held in the innings, an England record for an outfielder.
But there was nothing uptight about his spectacular catch at deep midwicket, diving full- length to remove Rishabh Pant at a crucial stage of India’s chase at Edgbaston last Sunday.
There’s every chance England would have won the game without the catch. But that’s the thing about Woakes: it’s tempting to downplay even his moments of magic.
His team-mates obviously know better — they call him ‘the Wizard’. Perhaps his greatest spells are still to come.